GameSpot Previews Freedom Force Designer Diary #8 penned by Anthony "Abbadon" Clare, a 3D artist in the Canberra, Australia, offices of Irrational Games. The diary discusses his job as "the effects monkey" and his role of helping to "develop and maintain an art aesthetic" for Freedom Force, their upcoming superhero game. He describes today's update as intended "to give you a little insight into how we have approached the effects creation tasks on Freedom Force." Here's a bit from the diary that talks about what they are putting together for the game:

Staying within the tech specs while also achieving the designers' vision is a pretty intense task. What's proved to be important is maintaining the right balance of particle systems, polygonal elements, 2D elements, and textures. The various effects use these "ingredients" in differing proportions. Words such as the classic "Pow!!" and "Zaaaaaaaap!!!" are included where appropriate. These are on billboards so as to always face the camera. I use the polygonal elements to morph a shape for animation and/or to give volume to an effect. Particle systems give a different type of animation to the effects and can give a sense of force and movement without spending hours hand-animating hundreds of individual elements. Lastly, but perhaps most importantly, are the textures. Without them the effects would be a rather frightful display of colored squares and triangles popping across the screen. So a critical part of making the effects is doing the textures for them. As in all texturing jobs, not only do you have to watch your in-game texture budget, but you also have to keep in mind naming conventions and the disk space the textures will take up.